Buttermilk

Summer is almost over, which means summer produce will also soon be gone. But there are still a few weeks left to get our fill of zucchini, tomatoes, peppers and other summer staples. The latest healthy recipe, cherry tomato salad with basil buttermilk dressing, allows us to take advantage of some of that produce. It comes from The Food Network Healthy Recipes. Ingredients 6 cups red and yellow cherry tomatoes, halved if large Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper 2/3 cup buttermilk 1/4 cup sour cream 3 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil leaves 1 shallot, minced 2 cloves garlic, minced Directions Put the cherry tomatoes in a large serving bowl.

With about 10 jalapenos already in the fridge and a small basket of fresh tomatillos coming in the new weekly pickup from Cockeysville's Moon Valley Farm, I knew I had some sort of Tex-Mex meal in my future. But I'd never cooked with tomatillos before and wasn't quite sure what to do with them. I searched the cookbooks on my shelf and in "Just Tacos: 100 Delicious Recipes for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner," by Shelley Wiseman (Taunton Press, 2011) found a recipe for tacos with chopped fish and tomatillo "salad.

The soup had me and my fellow diners swooning and spooning. There were pieces of asparagus and mushroom floating in a golden liquid. The flavor was smooth yet complex. It was, I learned later, the flavor of good old-fashioned buttermilk.The buttermilk soup was the first course in a seven-course dinner held at Hampton's restaurant in Baltimore's Harbor Court Hotel. Executive Chef Holly Forbes had cooked up the feast to honor Jonathan White, the man who made the buttermilk, and the clabbered cream, and the cultured sweet butter, and all the other high-flavor, high-fat dairy products that many big dairies shy away from.

Summer is almost over, which means summer produce will also soon be gone. But there are still a few weeks left to get our fill of zucchini, tomatoes, peppers and other summer staples. The latest healthy recipe, cherry tomato salad with basil buttermilk dressing, allows us to take advantage of some of that produce. It comes from The Food Network Healthy Recipes. Ingredients 6 cups red and yellow cherry tomatoes, halved if large Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper 2/3 cup buttermilk 1/4 cup sour cream 3 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil leaves 1 shallot, minced 2 cloves garlic, minced Directions Put the cherry tomatoes in a large serving bowl.

Add creamy and tangy buttermilk to the list of hot ingredients for the '90s. Plain old buttermilk now has cachet -- it's turning up on menus from the best restaurants all over the country. Years ago, buttermilk was the liquid left after churning butter. Today's commercial buttermilk is no longer a by-product of butter making: It is nonfat or low-fat milk that has bacteria added to it, which thickens the milk and imparts a mild acidity. Buttermilk has always been a friend to the baker, and it is wonderful in low-fat baking.

Dorothy G. Kinder of Glen Burnie wrote, "I am looking for a recipe for biscuits which calls for buttermilk, dry yeast and which are refrigerated overnight." Karen Hindman of Laurel responded with a recipe that she says is "for the biscuits Dorothy wanted. There are other variations of `angel biscuits,' but this is the best one using buttermilk! I am from North Carolina and love this book, Woman's Club of Hamlet, NC Cookbook. Hope you enjoy this recipe!" Recipe requests Laurel Stevens of Baltimore is seeking a recipe for chicken or shrimp curry.

By Kathleen Purvis and Kathleen Purvis,McClatchy-Tribune | June 4, 2008

I am confused about buttermilk in cake recipes. The recipes don't specify which type of buttermilk - whole fat or low- or nonfat. Will using low-fat or nonfat buttermilk change the taste? The recipes probably don't specify a fat level because most buttermilk is low-fat or nonfat. Originally, buttermilk was what was left after butter had been churned from full-fat milk. Since the fat became butter, the milk left behind was low-fat or nonfat. These days, most buttermilk is cultured, similar to yogurt.

V. Hartman of Baltimore is seeking a recipe for Buttermilk Candy, which she calls "a sinfully rich treat." Beth Hunter of Timonium responded. "Here is the recipe that V. Hartman wanted," she wrote. "It comes from `Southern Heritage's Gift Receipts Cookbook,' 1985. This is a wonderfully rich candy with just a hint of tartness from the buttermilk. "Pay special attention to the temperature of the soft-ball stage; too low and the candy won't harden, too high and the candy will be too hard.

Buttermilk is a Southern staple, as necessary in the Dixie kitchen as grits and ham -- probably because most Southern cooks are bakers at heart.Southern cooks are famous for their breads, biscuits and cakes, and the secret to many good recipes is simply buttermilk.Originally, buttermilk was what remained in the churn after you made butter. On a cool, clear morning or evening -- hot or stormy weather delays the process -- fresh cream was put in a tall, wooden churn. The butter-maker worked the plunger with even strokes until the sound and feel of the cream indicated that the butter was ready.

By Cathy Thomas and Cathy Thomas,Orange County Register | May 13, 1998

Supposedly, Cleopatra used buttermilk as a facial mask. Advisers told Scarlett O'Hara a buttermilk bath could fade freckles.Today, skeptics may question its merits as a beauty aid, but its culinary talents are incontrovertible."

Della Creighbaum from Plymouth, Ind., was looking for a recipe for buttermilk pie. She said that this was her son's favorite pie when he was a little boy and she always made it for his birthday but she lost her recipe many years ago and would like to be able to make it for him again. Lynn Master from Timonium saw Creighbaum's request and sent in a recipe for the pie that comes from her grandparents, Vara and Carl Kelly , of Lillinton, N.C. She writes that both her grandparents were wonderful cooks and bakers and that her grandfather, who was pharmacist, after he retired liked to spend time in the kitchen "measuring and creating edible 'medicines' for us to enjoy.

By Kathleen Purvis and Kathleen Purvis,McClatchy-Tribune | June 4, 2008

I am confused about buttermilk in cake recipes. The recipes don't specify which type of buttermilk - whole fat or low- or nonfat. Will using low-fat or nonfat buttermilk change the taste? The recipes probably don't specify a fat level because most buttermilk is low-fat or nonfat. Originally, buttermilk was what was left after butter had been churned from full-fat milk. Since the fat became butter, the milk left behind was low-fat or nonfat. These days, most buttermilk is cultured, similar to yogurt.

When I should have left well enough alone, I strayed. It happens, in life and in recipes. I fooled around with the family's pancakes. The established recipe has served us well. It consists of a cup of flour; 3/4 teaspoon baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon baking soda; a scant amount, maybe 1/4 teaspoon, of salt; 1 egg; 1 cup buttermilk; and 2 tablespoons of butter. I mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, beat the egg, then pour the egg and buttermilk into the flour mixture. I melt the butter in a cast-iron frying pan, then pour all but what's needed to coat the pan into the batter and cook pancakes, one at a time.

Rough and craggy on the outside, tender on the inside, Irish soda bread is the perfect treat for celebrating St. Patrick's Day. The bread -- so named for the baking soda that makes it rise -- became popular in Ireland in the 19th century, before yeast was in wide use there, Alan Davidson writes in The Oxford Companion to Food. The crosses cut in the top both helped the bread bake faster, and, lore had it, warded off the devil. (A tic-tac-toe pattern works well, too.) Shirley Coleman, a chef instructor at Baltimore International College, showed us an easy version made with raisins, called a "spotted dog" in Ireland.

By Carolyn Jung and Carolyn Jung,McClatchy-Tribune | November 15, 2006

James Bond prefers his shaken, not stirred. I like mine thick enough for a spoon or a fork. When it comes to that icon of cool, a martini glass can hold a classic American cocktail. Or nowadays, a whole lot more. Ahi tartare. Silky panna cotta. Spicy ceviche. Basil ice cream. Even good, old-fashioned mashed potatoes or Jell-O. Put anything into a martini glass, and instantly it's glam. That's why Gillian Baggen, pastry chef at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in San Francisco, loves to serve individual desserts in the sophisticated stemware, especially layered desserts that look so alluring behind clear glass.

I have long had a soft spot in my heart for strawberry season. It comes at a good time of year. Running from late May to early June, the weather is often a benign mixture of the verdure of spring and the warmth of early summer. The fruits of high summer -- peaches, watermelon and cantaloupe -- need the brutal heat of Maryland Julys to bring their flesh to fruition. But strawberries merely require spring's gentle sunshine and modest moisture to produce a sweet harvest. Filled with graduations and weddings, strawberry season is a time of hope, of life's sweet desserts.

Cuban black bean soup and buttermilk drops are the order of this day. Perhaps they'll become a favorite order for your home menus.Helen E. Unger of Glen Rock, Pa., requested a Cuban black bean soup recipe "similar to the one served at the Crab Shanty restaurant in Ellicott City."Jack Stuprich of Baltimore sent chef Gilles Syglowski's choice, and he wrote that his recipe is like that served at the Back Porch restaurant on Ocracoke Island:"Just a ferry ride from Hatteras Village, and if you are on the Outer Banks, a day trip to Ocracoke, this beautiful North Carolina Island, is a must."

Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw loved brown soda bread and once said of it: "Remember that brown bread is a good familiar creature and worth more than his weight in flesh." Perhaps Ireland's greatest culinary legacy, soda bread is but one of many humble and familiar creatures that come to mind when the subject of Irish cooking comes up at this time of year. Along with Irish stew, bacon and cabbage, smoked salmon and potato dishes, soda bread may be the most cherished of Irish fare, but it's buttermilk, one of its key ingredients, that Irish bakers have used for generations to produce not only hearty loaves of bread, but also light and tender cakes, fruit-filled crisps and crumbles, and, lately, even tangy soups and cheesy tarts.

Chances are, some of your favorite recipes are covered with your own handwriting. Whether you've listed substitutions or tweaked the cooking time, you've tailored the directions to your own equipment and taste. With The Best American Recipes 2005-2006 (Houghton Mifflin, 2005, $26), editors Fran McCullough and Molly Stevens have done some of this work for you. Their "test kitchen" notes on 147 recipes from newspapers, magazines, cookbooks and the Internet give common-sense tips on how to make each dish succeed.